How bad do relations need to be before war?

[colprice]

I'm currently playing A-H, and (not surprisingly) their ally Spain (1911 period).

Relations between Italy and Germany are 19, Italy and Japan 18, Italy and US 17; Spain 9, 13, 11 respectively. I'm hoping that one of the major players will consider action against Italy (and Spain) but I can't see any signs of this.
Anyone know how bad relations need to be to trigger war?

Colin

[hawkeye]

Anything above 9 (or was it 10?) _can_ trigger a war.

In my experience, nations seem to (sometimes) consider the relative strength of the potential enemy (including allies) before declaring war. So if Italy is allied with the British and Russia, Japan might be a wee bit reluctant to declare war on this triple alliance.

Also, if the hostile nation is already involved in a war, they seem to be _very_ reluctant to enter another one.

Then again, I _did_ have nations declare war on me, even though they were at tension 7 or 8 the turn before (probably several events that rose tensions) without hesitation.

I guess, what I'm trying to say is, that there seem to be quite a lot of factors that the AI considers before declaring war. It also seems that, the higher tensions are, the higher the chance of war, but it's not guaranteed, no matter what.

Note: All of the above is based on my observations. I have no clue how it is actually programmed.

[colprice]

Thanks:-

Current relations are:-
A-H vs GB 2; vs Germany 0; vs US 0; vs Japan 0 - at war with Italy and Spain
Spain vs Japan 11; vs US 11; vs Germany 6; vs GB 2
Italy vs GB 18; vs US 18; vs Germany 21; vs Japan 20;vs Russia 11

I'd rather expected that WW1 would break out - everyone against Spain & Italy....

Fortunately, I seem to have a couple of BBs and BCs that are managing to deal with the Italian and Spanish 1st generation BB & BC

Colin